MLA 7th Edition

APA 6th Edition

Jon, R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2014). Ontario and Confederation. Retrieved May 24, 2018, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ontario-and-confederation/

Chicago 16th Edition

Jon. "Ontario and Confederation" In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985–. Article published November 14, 2014. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ontario-and-confederation/.

Turabian

Jon. 2014. Ontario and Confederation. The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ontario-and-confederation/ (accessed May 24, 2018).

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Durham described them as “two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.” He recommended assimilating the French, a “people with no literature and no history” in his view, under the government of a single legislature.

The union came into effect in 1841. The new province — consisting of the renamed Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Québec) — struggled financially at times. New waves of British immigration could not find farmland beyond the Canadian Shield, which stunted the growth of the colony.

In February and March 1849, the Montréal Riots erupted, when protests against the weakened economic state of the colony, and the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, drew angry crowds into the streets. They threw rotten eggs and stones at the carriage of Governor GeneralLord Elgin. That night, people burned the Parliament building in Montréal.

The capital of the province subsequently moved out of Montréal. Confederation was proposed as a way of easing these French-English tensions, and of resolving the state of political deadlock that had arisen between Canada East and Canada West, making the combined colony difficult to govern.

Given that their neighbours to the south were about to fall into the brutal American Civil War, cooler heads also sought a more peaceful way to live together in Canada. Some feared an expansionist United States might annex parts of British North America, and saw that Confederation would provide strength to resist any such aggression.

Macdonald, Cartier and other members of a Canadian delegation attended the Charlottetown Conference in 1864. Originally designed to discuss Maritime Union, the Charlottetown meeting resulted in an agreement between the Canadians and the Maritime colonies to pursue Confederation. This was followed by another meeting in Québec City, in which the details of Confederation were ironed out.